Ep 189 Philippines' President Duterte Thinks Reporters Deserve to Die July 7, 2016

And the award for worst media relations ever goes to Philippines President elect Rodrigo Duterte.

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media at work and in life. Speaking with TJ Walker. Wow.

Folks, I've seen a lot of politicians mishandle the media, poorly understand the media, have frayed relations with the media. But this is a new level. Philippines President elect Rodrigo Duterte is boycotting the media. He hasn't even officially started his term as of the time of this recording and he's already claiming he's going to boycott all media reporters for the entire length of his time in office. We'll see if that actually happens. Other people have threatened that they usually back down after a month or so. So he's now getting a part of a ban from journalists who are trying to boycott or suggesting they should boycott his events because he asserted that many quote, son of a. And I can't say what he said without being banned in certain countries. Son of a and shall we say rhymes with which many sonovat which journalist slain on the job deserved to die. Now a lot of politicians have low regard for reporters here in the United States. Richard Nixon, the former president elected in 1968, had a famous contempt for reporters and referred to them privately as these son of and I'll clean it up. Son of witches even had an enemies list with prominent reporters like CBS Daniel Shore on the enemy list. But to actually publicly say you're glad reporters died and kill, that really takes things to a whole new level. Now he posted a video on his website. Duterte says I won't grant interviews. Sorry, it's really a boycott. He says he's not going to do any interviews, quote until the end of my term in 2022, and that he's not going to speak to the media because of fear of his words being manipulated by the press. Here's what he said. If there are interviews, there will be many mistakes. There will be criticisms. So no interview, no criticism, no wrong statements, no nothing. Shut up. And then he also speaks in his native language there, essentially saying, I really don't want it anymore. Go away. This is truly extraordinary, folks. I'll talk about the ramifications in one moment.

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I have to share with you some of the other choice comments he made. Here's what he said to Benjamin Ishmael who is head of a media desk in the Pacific. He says, go ahead, boycott me. As a matter of fact, I'm urging you, make this your last trip in Davio City where he's based. I hate giving interviews. I would be content with a camera and a cell phone taking pictures of me. Do not come here anymore. I'm challenging you guys. Kill journalism, Stop journalism in this country. If you're worth your salt, you should accept the challenge. Wow. I mean, this truly is extraordinary for. For someone who is ostensibly a leader of a democracy now. Every democracy has its strengths, its flaws. Everyone has certain restrictions on the media. I mean, here in the United States, you can't shout fire in a crowded theater. There are limitations to speech and the media. You can't, for example, print the locations and codes to nuclear bombs violating national security. So everyone has some restrictions. There are some checks and balances. But to say no media, I essentially hope you die and I just want you to take my picture. Is showing absolute contempt for any notion of a free press. And the Philippines has had its reign of authoritarian leaders in the past, most noticeably Ferdinand Marcos. The real problem, though, is you can't attract. Well, there's a lot of problems, but one of the biggest problems is no one else wants to live in your country. People don't want to do business with your country. It's harder to get economic development and investment in your country if people feel like the leader can do anything they want. If you consolidate all the power in a leader who is unchecked by media, you really set yourself up for a tremendous number of abuses. This is one reason why a lot of political observers in the United States are increasingly scared at the musings of Donald Trump and his attitudes towards the media. Saying that basically any reporter is ever critical of him is lowlife. He calls them names. He has said openly he wants to make it easier for political figures and business leaders to sue and win libel cases against journalists. Certainly in places like China, Russia, journalists who criticize the government have a tendency to disappear and other bad things that can happen to them. So it is troublesome. Everyone has a bias. I have a bias in favor of actually talking to the media, number one. Number two, doing so in a way where you get the message you want across. The president elected Philippines is absolutely right that there can be errors, there can be mistakes. Reporters can have biases. They can criticize you. The problem is if you cut them all off, then every single story they do can be negative about you and attack you for not talking to them. And they'll be 100% accurate then. Because if you're saying you're never ever going to talk to a reporter, then they're always going to be right. Saying you're hidden, you're secretive, you refuse questions and you refuse to hold yourself accountable. Every story will be right. And if they then print or report on other charges from people that perhaps aren't correct and you don't talk to them to correct it, you can't complain. My big problem of not talking to reporters beyond the larger philosophical issues of whether that's needed to sustain a democracy, is that it's just not a particularly effective way of controlling the information flow and controlling your image. Now this president of the Philippines is a little luckier now than if he'd been coming to power 20 years ago, because now you can communicate with the public just by creating your own videos, posting on your website, posting it on your Facebook page. Twitter, it has been estimated by the Donald Trump campaign, and of course I would generally give a lot of credibility to that. But they claim they have a reach of 20 million people through all his various social media outlets, Twitter in particular. So we're not that far away from when political leaders can reach the masses directly with their message, thus bypassing the traditional media. And there is a, there's a role for that, there's a place for that, but it can't be the only way of communication because then if you still have any kind of a free media, they're going to be there to attack you, vilify you all the time because they'll be angry. Or if you're so authoritarian, you eliminate the reporters and you keep them from doing their job. That creates scary, scary implications for society and an economy. And I really don't think it's sustainable for anyone who wants to enjoy first world apologies if you don't like that term, fully developed western style standard of livings and economy. It's simply not sustainable. Because if a political figure can put a reporter out of business, there's nothing preventing that political figure from putting a business person out of business, an oil company executive, a telecommunications company out of business. And once people realize this is not a popularly elected official who has checks and balances, but an authoritarian who can do anything he wants. And make no mistake about it, most authoritarian dictators are men. The whole society falls apart. And that's the real problem with this strategy of I'm never going to talk to reporters. We'll see what happens. My guess is that the Philippines president at some point realizes this is not sustainable and he starts talking to a couple of reporters who were considered a little friendlier. And next thing you know, it's pretty much back to the old way of doing it. Or they bring in, I'm not applying for the job. At some point they bring in some kind of consultant to educate this political leader on how to speak to the media. Because if you know how to talk to the reporters and you know how the media work and you know how to speak in sound bites, at some point, it doesn't matter if the reporter like you or agree with you, you can still communicate your message to a much larger audience than you can just through your own media. Even if you are like Donald Trump and you have 6 million Twitter followers. I'm TJ Walker. I have a lot fewer Twitter followers than that, but I am very much appreciative of you being a listener or a viewer today. Thanks so much. See you tomorrow.

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